The Mystery of George Shaw
Dulcie Belle Quig was the first wife of Thomas Ellis Glover, a well-known Wellington cartoonist.
Dulcie married Tom in 1916, at the age of 20. Their children Dulcie and Ellis were born in 1918 and 1920 respectively. But sadly Dulcie died seven weeks after the birth of Ellis. ‘The late Mrs Glover’s endearing charm was esteemed by all those whose privilege it was to have known her’.
Three months later Dulcie’s mother Alice died. Alice represented herself as the widow of George Quig. George Quig was the name of Alice’s children. Is this the same George Shaw Quig who was buried at Karori in 1908? If so, he appears to have a wife elsewhere …
George Shaw Quig was born about 1859 in Scotland and in 1887 he had moved with his wife Mary and two daughters to Australia. In 1895, a warrant was issued in Sydney for George’s arrest, charged with disobeying a magisterial order for the support of his wife. His description read ‘dark hair, black moustache only, dark brown eyes, dresses well in dark clothes, a tailor’s cutter’.
In the meantime. George and Alice appear to have had at least three children: George Ernest (born 1894), Dulcie (born 1896) and Alice (married Arthur Law). As George and Alice were not married, it is assumed the children’s births are registered under their mother’s name, and unfortunately, we don’t know Alice’s surname so cannot trace where they were all born.
The next time we can find George Shaw Quig is in 1899 when pops up as a cutter in Christchurch with ‘world wide experience’. In 1907 he takes up a position as head cutter for Kirkcaldie and Staines and then he died on March 1908 at 225 Willis Street. He is buried in an unmarked plot at Karori Cemetery (Public 2/H/126). His wife Mary Quig died in Sydney in 1910.
Alice then starts to appear on the electoral roll in Wellington, sometimes as a widow, sometimes as a spinster. She supports her young family by running a ten-room boarding house in Abel Smith Street until it was damaged in a fire. She then relies on support from her son George junior. Alice died at her home ‘Sherwood’ at 220 Willis Street, age 54.
Public 2/K/309
More about Tom Glover: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Glover_(cartoonist)
